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Hello:
Well, the Life goes on show was a big success. There were more than 80 images on the wall, we got good coverage, and people had a great time. It was fun participating in the show! And now it is time for Life to go on! I am currently working on a number of projects to include a documentary and two books. I will be doing a number of photo shoots so if you or anyone you know is looking to be photographed let me know! The summer months are rich with photographic opportunities and there is only so much time. One of our dogs gave birth to four puppies last weekend and then two of them later died. The two that are left appear to be healthy and they are growing quickly. I already have a few photo shoot ideas with the new puppies and the mom.
Photographic projects that I am currently working on include
Medieval images similar to what you would see in Boris Vallejo’s paintings. I am not looking to duplicate the images but, to do similar work.
Sports shoots that include team and individual sports. I am interested in everything from pro, school, and amateur sports events.
As always I am looking for models for fine art, abstract, and surreal nudes. I am looking for a broad range of models for the above projects and I am compensating the models on a trade for pic basis.
If you know of great photo ops please let me know!
Thanks for your time
Peace,
Bill
Hello:
This Friday July 11th, is the latest photo show with my work in it. It has been a great experience setting this show up and I think there will be a few surprises for those of you that decide to go to it? We are having images from two clubs that I am a member of as well as a couple of relatively famous photographers from Denver (Hal Gould and Loretta Young-Gautier of the Camera Obscura Gallery) and a photographer from Montana. We will have images from 24 artists on display!
The show will take place at the Smokebrush Foundation 218 West Colorado Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO. You can find it in the Art Depot district just under the Colorado Avenue Bridge on the North side of the street. The show starts at 5 PM on July 11th and goes through July 23rd. Visit the smokebrush website for details. http://www.smokebrush.org/happenings.htm
It was interesting setting this show up! The staff of the Smokebrush center did all the work of actually intaking the images, and putting them on display. I put out a notice that we were looking for images with two photo clubs here in Colorado Springs and requested that they let me know if they were planning to put images up in the show. I received 13 responses from people that they wanted to put images in. 24 people actually brought images to the show. With such a great response we had to turn down a number of pieces of work but, every artist got at least one image into the show. The end result is 88 great photos for people to view! The show is free and open to the public and a number of the images are up for sale so feel free to bring your wallet.
Originally there was going to be a fashion show to go with the photo show. The fashion show was canceled as the producer of the fashion show is unavailable to put it all together. It is unfortunate as in excess of 44 people were participating in the fashion show. We were going to have models, designers, a DJ, a lighting person, a body painter and we invited photographers to photograph the fashion portion of the show. I hope this show can take place at some point in the future. It is amazing the details that go into producing a fashion show of this nature! Well, as the show states “Life Goes On.”
I hope a lot of you make it to the show and take the time to let me know what you think by commenting to this blog!
Peace,
Bill Young – Figurative Photo
Hello:
I just went on a trip to visit with the relatives from all around the country. It was a great time. One of the things that happened once I arrived was an interest in some small yellow birds that spent most of the time across the river from us. The first task was to identify the yellow birds, then we needed to determine what was the best equipment to capture images of the birds, and then plan a way to get the best photos of them.
Identification wasn’t as easy as most would have thought. The problem was that the birds kept a good distance from us and there are lots of bright yellow birds that fly through the area of Chama New Mexico. We collected a few tools. We started with a book on birds put out by the National Audobon Society, Then we got field glasses (Binoculars) that are developed for viewing birds. The way you know they are developed for viewing birds is that they are light weight so you can move around with them and they are high power enough to see small objects at a good distance. As it turned out the bird we were after was a Yellow Finch! http://www.thelensflare.com/gallery/p_animals_2182.php. This bird was Identified by the bright yellow color all over the body, the black patch on the top of the head, the size of the bird, and the location we found it in. If you were to look for the birds in a different season you may not recognize them at all! http://www.birdsnbutterflies.com/yellowfinch.htm
The second step was to determine what equipment to use. Due to the fact that the birds were keeping a good distance from us we had to bring in big lenses. I told the relatives we needed at least 600 mm of lens to capture the fine birds. We also would need a sturdy tri-pod if we were going to get a good photo of the birds without motion. We would also need those field glasses again in order to find the birds as the 600 mm lens would be too narrow a view to be effective at this job. I also recomended a natural blind – The trees in the area were a good place to hide in order to take the photos instead of just standing on the banks of the water as most of the relatives were doing.
Now planning the photo out. We have a few things to consider when planning our photo out. We want to get a pleasant background, we want as close to the bird as we can get, and we want to capture the bird in as natural a habitat as possible. We can do this by observation. Birds are creatures of habbit. If you watch birds for awhile you will start to notice that they have a favorite perch. They also have favorite times of day to spend time on that perch. We determind that early morning and in the evening was the best time to capture our shot. during the day the birds basically vanished into the woods. We found a tree that one or two birds kept going to and a branch they would land on. After observing for a couple of days we figured out that early morning was the best time as the sun would be lighting the birds up and we didn’t have any back lighting as in the evening. After deciding where we wanted our bird for the shot we needed to figure out where to take our shot from. We found a clump of trees that were as close as we could get without crossing the water and that we could put a lens through to get a nice clear shot of the birds.
Well, as most of you know I am not a morning person. Not that it doesn’t happen but, that it is unlikely. I left it up to my cousin to get the shot. Did we get it? I actually don’t know yet as when I got up the next morning the cousin that was going to get the shot had already left. I guess it will be a few days before I find out. I can tell you I have had great luck with the planning above and you can see some of my photos of birds on the gallery pages.
Now you know how the photos are taken so get out there and start shooting! I think you will be suprised just how well you can do if you follow the plan of attack laid out for you above. If you don’t have a 600 mm lens you can get closer to the perch before the bird(s) are expected to arrive and then be quite and watch the birds come in. Just make sure you don’t add stress to the birds, and take care not to disrupt the habitat they live in. We want the birds back next year so that we can get even better photos of them. Audubon Society http://www.audubon.org/. Let me know about the success you have in capturing your images of birds!
